Punk rock has a sturdy tradition of gross-out, offensive comedy—one automobileried into the current by bands like Fats White Family and Diarrhea Planet, who might not exist have been it not for Concern, an unstable L.A. band led by an obnoxious provocateur who goes by the identify Lee Ving. Like fellow L.A. punks the Germs, Circle Jerks, and Black Flag, Concern will get credit for pioneering a California punk sound recognized for adolescent brattiness and a complete lack of pretension to any sort of artworkfulness or cool.
Like a lot of their friends, Concern rose to prominence when Penelope Spheeris featured them in her 1981 punk documalestary The Decline of Western Civilization, Half I. However earlier than that seminal movie’s launch, Concern was discovered by John Belushi, who first caught the band on a neighborhood L.A. music present referred to as New Wave Theatre in 1980. He tracked down Ving, who tells Rolling Stone, “we had a couple of beers and have become quick mates.” On the time, Belushi was at work on his comedy Neighbors with Dan Aykroyd and contracted the band to report a track for the movie (his final earlier than his loss of life in 1982).
The movie’s professionalducers, Rolling Stone writes, “have been appalled” by the track “and refused to make use of it,” so to make it as much as Ving and company, Belushi pushed to have the band booked on Saturday Night time Dwell on Halloween, 1981. The outcomeing performance has change into legendary for what happened, and what didn’t, and led to Concern becoming, says Ving, “one of many esteemed members of the permanently banned.” You may watch a clip above of the band playing “Beef Boloney” and “New York’s Alright if You Like Saxotelephones” (introduced by Donald Pleasance), and slightly below see Ving in a clip from an interview present discussing the ill-fated gig.
Belushi stage-managed the band’s seemance, striving for authenticity by carrying into the studio what Ving calls “an actual punk rock audience somewhat than simply Mr. and Mrs. Missouri.” (That audience included now-legends Ian MacKaye of Minor Menace and Fugazi, members of New York arduouscore band the Cro-Mags, and Tesco Vee of the Meatmales.) The outcomeing mosh pit was nothing out of the ordinary for the typical punk present. However, unsurprisingly, “the actual audience at Saturday Night time Dwell was scared to loss of life,” says Ving, “They didn’t know what was happening with all of the mighthem.”
During the riotous professionalceedings, SNL professionalducer Dick Ebersol “obtained hit within the chest with a pumpkin,” some equipment was damaged, and during the ultimate track, “Let’s Have a Struggle,” an audience member grabbed the microcellphone and yelled out “F*ck New York!” The professionalfanity freaked out NBC, who reduce the broadforged quick and shelved the footage for several years. The New York Publish later quoted an unnamed NBC technician as saying, “This was a life-threatening situation. They went loopy. It’s amazing nobody obtained killed.” The paper additionally quoted a figure of $400,000 for damages to the Rockefeller Center set.
However as Invoiceboard reported two weeks later, the figure was wholely erroneous (supplied to the Publish by Ving as a practical joke, as he says above). “We needed to pay $40 in labor penalties. That was the extent of it,” mentioned SNL spokesman Peter Hamilton. As for the shock to viewers, it appears the webwork acquired “all of 12 complaints” after the broadforged. Ving himself discovered the overreaction ridiculous, and NBC’s lengthy shelving of the footage—solely latestly made availin a position in a truncated model—a humormuch less mistake. “They appear to be… losing the humorousness about the entire concept,” he advised Rolling Stone, “I had a humorousness on the entire concept of begining Concern. It was excessively humorous to me, and I believe John noticed that humor.”
Certainly he did, however Belushi’s appreciation for Concern’s antics was forward of its time. Now we will see, not less than partly, what all of the fuss was about. And we will additionally ultimately hear the long-shelved single for Neighbors that Belushi reported with the band.
Observe: An earlier version of this put up appeared on our web site in 2016.
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Josh Jones is a author and musician based mostly in Durham, NC.
